All questions tagged Oliver Wyman interview - Consulting Q&A - PrepLounge.com

Dear Ankit,

I've gathered some info on OW and what I can say is they are much less structured when compared to McK and others.

For example:

1) Sometimes they don't even ask for structure;

2) I've heard from friends that went to final rounds who got a lot of "strange" estimation cases (PM me if you want to learn a few of them)

3) The style of case depends a lot more on the interviewer rather than the firm (in other words, depending on the interviewer you will get a more interviewer-led or candidate-led)

4) The cases tend to be shorter (this could depend from country to country) - the entire case is more 40-45 minute, with a good 7-10min FIT and at least 5-10min Q&A so the case usually is from 25-35 minutes (again, this can change from office to office)

Hope this helps

Hi,

Oliver Wyman in London recruits non-graduates for entry-level positions if your work experience is lower than 2 years. They also sponsor your visa, even if it is an entry-level position. In order to get a better understanding of your fit, I advise that you reach out to HR.

Best,

Deniz

Although I do not think there is a definition of an ideal consultant as diversity is an important element of an ideal consultant team, you can have a great idea about profiles by checking LinkedIn profiles of senior consultants at the company.

Also had to do this for the London office earlier this week. There was no math just personality based questions. I'll let you know how it went once I hear back.

Dear John,

You absolutely shouldn't be worried. This is standard practice in some consulting offices and at the Big 4. It is usually a preliminary step before the first round of interviews, and usually takes place right before or after a numerical test (or at least that's the case at OW and the Big4).

These kind of tests (Psychometric Tests) help prospective employers gain insight into your personality, background, and psychological thinking, which in turn helps them determine your suitability for a particular position. They might also be helpful to you in that they might allow you to identify your strengths, abilities, and weaknesses.
There is no right way to answer a psychometric test: you must strive to answer all questions honestly and in the required amount of time. My only advice (but it's rather obvious) is to avoid giving answers that are self-deprecating, and to emphasise your ability to interact with people. Someone who presents themselves in the test as a shy, anti-social person risks not making the cut.

I have never heard anyone being rejected after taking a psychometric test, so I really wouldn't be worried. Good luck on the next steps!

Hello Jirapat,

based on disciplens you've mentioned, there are 3 key areas in which you need to obtain fundamentals:

1. Basic Corporate Finance (valuation techniques)
2. Basic Financial Accounting (understand terminology like: Accounts Payable/Receivable, and be able to "read" Balance, P&L, CF)
3. Basic Managerial Accounting (especially i recomend to focus on cost structures and behaviours)

There are two ways to do so:

1. Available consulting preparations services which are FREE, and contain all 3 components and application frameworks in a single course (reasonable solution if you're quite short on time, pragmatic and quite practical; - however lacks some "academic" level knowledge).
2. Study your way more "academicaly" (Libby/Libby/Hodge for deep understanding of FA, as example), use services like OpenTuition and focus on Fundamentals of CFA/CIMA/ACCA.

It depends on the office, practice and the recruitment cycle. Usually takes about 2-3 weeks in the London office (if they haven't met their headcount target)

Got a similar case at McKinsey some time ago - I actually asked the same question here : https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/atypical-case-4501

Hi Anonymous,

I replied below to your questions:

1. So far that you have been invited, the case performance is the only thing that matters; this means that if you practice cases on the banking and insurance industries (likely to be present in the interviews) and develop a basic knowledge related to them you should be fine even if you don’t have an Economics/Finance background
2. You will likely get financial sector cases but not necessarily that only. I interviewed with OW FS and I got questions related to banking, insurance and market sizing, however I helped several other candidates for OW FS and they also got questions related to other sectors. For more information please feel free to PM, I have 15+ case questions they recently asked
3. Standard preparation similar to the one for MBB with a bit more focus on financial sector cases should be fine

Best,

Francesco

Couple of points to add to previous responses:

If you haven't done basic highschool maths in a while, I would revisit the topics of geometry/trigonometry, probability and basic statistics.

While I agree GMAT quantitative section is a good way to practice, don't go overboard with buying GMAT material. Also, only do the "problem solving" questions - the OW test doesn't ask any of the "data sufficiency" type questions. You can find plenty of free content online - also, you can download the "Gmat test simulator" for free and do the math section. Unless you are planning on doing the GMAT soon as well, I would not invest into materials to prep for this.

Finally, being able to fast mental maths is not important, since you can use a calculator. So don't focus on this for the test (but definitely practice it for the actual interview).

Hi George Philippe,

are you going to take Oliver Wyman's LShift Coding Challenge?

Best regards

Hi,

I also interviewed with them in the past and received an offer. The most important thing, in addition to the usual ones (Why the Firm, Enthuisiasm, Why consulting...) is to give them a sense that you know what the Public sector environment in Middle East (especially Saudi Arabia, as they are working mainly there) is about.

So they may ask you some cases that involves the Vision 2030, the key priorities for Saudi, the Approach to Turism, which are the key sectors that they should consider to growth the economy, How much is important for them to differentiate by oil...

Give them a sense that you have made your research on the key macro economic problems and trends in Saudi/ Middle East and youll be in a good trajectory.

Hope this can help,

Cheers,

Luca

Hi Sophie,

The most important thing I would stress is to suppress the desire to answer every question. You often get less than a minute per question, and spending even a few seconds on a question that you are unsure about can hamper you in answering future questions. Therefore, it might be more advantageous to skip questions you are unsure about, thus ensuring you answered as many questions as possible correctly. I do believe there is negative marking, so this strategy works well.

In terms of questions asked, its quite standard to other numerical tests, plenty of percentages and GRE level math questions.

Hi Serdar,

a possible structure to analyze a balance sheet to identify problems and possible solutions could be the following:

1. Clarify the goal of the bank. The analysis of a balance sheet could be different according to the fact that the company is worried about revenues, costs or profits
2. Structure some macroareas of the balance sheet relevant for the goal. Guennael provided an example of such methodology with a division in assets and liabilities and long and short term - you may use others so far that your are MECE in your analysis
3. Structure possible reasons for problems in the different macroareas and formulate a hypothesis on which is the actual cause. Let's say you notice a lack of deposits. You may investigate the reason for the problem as potentially external (eg economic trend) or internal (eg lack of marketing for the products). Then you can formulate a hypothesis on which is the actual cause for it
4. Ask for information related to the hypothesis you formulated to verify it. Keeping our previous example, if your hypothesis is that there is an internal problem, ask if we have any information on any change that happened on the bank proposal for short-term deposits to its clients. If you verify this is indeed the cause, move to provide a solution, otherwise update your hypothesis.
5. Provide a solution to the identified problem. According to the specific issue you have found, you can lay down a solution structure (eg increase the number of customers for deposits or the amount per deposit).

Hope this helps,

Francesco

The case portion will be overweighted: you can move to 2nd round if you were just ok on the fit but amazin in the case; you'd go home if the reverse were true.

Nothing really specific about Oliver Wyman, you prep should be similar to other consultancies. Ultimately, every company really looks for the same perfect candidate anyway. Just be sure to review the mechanics of the case, knowing it will be slightly easier to move to a 2nd round than it would be at MBB. Cases are probably just as hard, with perhaps a higher likelyhood to get a market sizing portion.

As for the fit, standard questions: tell me about yourself, describe a time you face adversity, what are you proud of, how would colleagues describe you... The usual :)

Hi there,

I have a lot of friends at Oliver Wyman Dubai, and interviewed there myself some years back. Cases are almost definitely going to be interviewee-led. The reason the cases on the website are interviewer led is because it's pretty hard to make an online case that is interviewee led.

In terms of types of cases, it really varies a lot. Oliver Wyman doesn't seem to have a central database of cases that all interviewers use (unlike e.g. Bain, McKinsey), but have freedom to give their own (pre-approved) case. It is known as a very analytical firm, and I have found a lot of their cases are very quant-heavy. They also have a much greater tendency to give "brain-teaser" / estimation questions. One question I received, for example, was "what will be the total number of Bank branches in the UK in 2025?". Another person I know received the question "you find a dinosaur egg that is about to hatch - what do you do with it?"

It is also worth noting that, depending on where you are in the world, interviews (at least first round, sometimes also final round with 1-2 interview with a Dubai office partner) will likely be conducted in the office closest to you (e.g. London). In this case you will be subject to that office's process - which can be different from Dubai. For example, OW London uses a presentation format case in final round where you present to a panel.

So in summary, you should expect quant-heavy cases, expect possible "non-traditional" cases like brain-teasers/estimations, and be aware that part/all of the process may take place in your local office.

Hi Louay,

In addition to Vlad's contribution, I can offer the following advice based on my experience with OW Dubai and London:

1. Prepare for brainteasers - these seem less frequent recently, but are still common amongst interviewers
2. Take the initiative and provide precise quantative answers - OW interviewers will frequently ask for precise results (e.g. to 3 decimal points), rather than for approximate figures
3. Demonstrate the firm's value proposition to you - solid reasons why OW stands out to you will go a long way (e.g. positioning in Financial Services, flexible Global Staffing Model, growth rate)

Feel free to reach out offline if you have any specific questions on the firm or the geography you are applying to. Best of luck!

Hi,

You should expect both transportation and generic cases. But definitely makes sense to read about transportation. The best resources for transportation knowledge will be:

1. Annual reports of the transportation companies (select the top ones)
2. Monographies (e.g. https://www.amazon.com/Transportation-Global-Supply-Chain-Perspective/dp/1133592961/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1524519506&sr=8-2&keywords=transportation)
3. HBS cases about these industries

Best!